Trouble, which has been the consistent portion of the Federation of Kosher Shop Owners of Greater New York during the recent past, will knock at that organization’s door with renewed vigor Friday night, when the Hebrew Butcher workers Union will decide on a date for a general strike of its 5,000 members.
Vigorous protest by the employers greeted this disclosure when it was made by Joseph Belsky, secretary of the workers’ union, yesterday.
In answer to charges of the butcher workers that some employers are replacing skilled meat handlers with child labor and are resorting to fake partnerships in efforts to escape the requirements of their agreements with the union, shop owners launched a counterattack which took form in the following statements:
1. No collective agreement between the Federation and the Hebrew Butcher Workers Union ever has been reached. Any existing agreements are between the latter union and individual shop owners, who may or may not be members of the Federation. The union therefore has no right to mention the Federation in its child-labor and fake-partnership accusations.
SEE PUBLIC CHIEF VICTIM
2. Whatever the outcome of the workers’ threats and decisions, no one will suffer so much as the Jewish buying public, which will find itself either deprived of kosher meats during the High Holidays or forced to pay higher prices as a result of the dispute. It is pointed out that the workers have chosen a peculiarly psychological moment at which to launch their strike threats, in view of the fact that Rosh Hashonah will be a little more than two weeks off when the walk-out session convenes in Webster Hall, 119 East Eleventh street, Friday night.
3. Good faith on the part of the Federation in regard to its attitude on the question of employment of minors has been proven in the proposed code of fair competition it has submitted to the NRA, David Andron, counsel for the Federation, declares. If members of the organization are violating this clause, he asserts, they constitute isolated cases.
$25,000 DEFENSE FUND
Despite the above counter-claims by the shop owners, the Butcher Workers Union is going ahead with its plans for the Friday night meeting. Preparation and enforcement of the proposed general strike, according to Belsky, will be carried on with the assistance of a $25,000 defense fund, which the kosher shop employees already have raised.
Agreements under which the employees are now working will expire in October, and the meat handlers will demand that these contracts be renewed without alteration.
Belsky charges the employers with attempting to defeat his organization’s efforts to raise the living standards of its members. On this allegation he bases his belief in the necessity for a general strike.
Some owners, Belsky asserts, are hiring boys to work seventy hours a week for as little as $7 a week and are replacing skilled union workers with these minors, in violation of the terms of their agreements.
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